Frank McClean by Philip Jarrett

Author:Philip Jarrett
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473814448
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

The ‘Double-Dirty’

One of the most mysterious of all Short aeroplanes made its debut at Eastchurch on Saturday 21 September 1912. Allotted type number S.46, it had been ordered by the Admiralty on 25 March, the same day as S.47 was ordered, and was described as ‘One Hydro Monoplane H2 fitted tandem fashion with 2 70 h.p. Gnome Engines. Machine No 46.’ In its 26 September issue The Aeroplane reported, ‘The new twin 70-h.p. engine Short monoplane made its appearance but did not essay a flight on account of heavy wind. The two 70-h.p. engines are fore and aft of the pilot and passenger; who sit side by side. The lateral control is by means of ailerons. She has been built for water work only.’ Despite this last remark the S.46 was destined only to be flown as a landplane. In its issue for 12 October Flight reported: ‘The twin-engine system has recently been installed on a monoplane built by Messrs. Short Bros., and during tests made by Commander Samson at Eastchurch, the machine, which has two 70 h.p. Gnome engines, performed very satisfactorily.’ The Gnomes were mounted at the front and rear of a short nacelle, driving one tractor and one pusher propellen and the tail surfaces were carried on open braced booms as with conventional pusher machines. The undercarriage carried streamlined pneumatic flotation bags which would not have enabled the machine to take off from the sea, so it seems that it was meant for launch from a shipborne runway As the occupants were subjected to a fierce slipstream laden with castor oil lubricant, the S.46, given the Admiralty serial number 12, was soon nicknamed the ‘Double-Dirty. When C G Grey of The Aeroplane visited Eastchurch early in October; the ‘great 140 h.p. experimental monoplane’ S.46 ‘was having some repairs and alterations made’. On October 21 the machine was ‘again out at Eastchurch with Commander Samson’, and on the afternoon of the 23rd Samson flew it twice, taking Engineer-Lieutenant Briggs, RN, as a passenger on the second flight. The next day Samson flew the monoplane from Eastchurch to the navy’s new and yet-to-be-commissioned hydro-aeroplane station on the Isle of Grain, opposite Sheerness, with Briggs in the passenger seat. He was back at Eastchurch flying S.38 in the afternoon, apparently having suffered a mishap with the S.46 at Grain, as there is record of a landing accident, with the aircraft being ‘towed to Grain’ on that day.

An entry in the Short’s order book, dated 24 October records: ‘To repair Twin 70 h.p. Monoplane No 12 after damage at the Isle of Grain’. It was repaired by the following day, and in its issue for 2 November Flight reported that ‘Last week… the new Short 140 h.p. double-engined monoplane’ was ‘being tested over the River Medway in the neighbourhood of Sheerness’. But it was evidently damaged again at the end of the month, as an order book entry for 30 October records: ‘Monoplane No 12. To repair the above Machine at the Isle of Grain’.

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